I am struggling finding a way to start today’s blog.  I don’t know if I should start by talking about the drought affecting food supply or start by sharing the joy of watching African children magnetically swarm my girls (as well as KC, who is one of the other youth on the trip).  So, I am just going to share a couple of special moments about today.

-The women at the project greeting us with dancing and singing, full of joy and filled with the Spirit.

-The children giggling while I practiced my Swahili.  Apparently I am not doing so well at it.

-Isabel’s eyes filled with tears as she looked at poverty.

-2 small children clinging to Julia the whole time we were at the project.

-Grace being swarmed by kids who just wanted to stare at her novel blonde hair and blue eyes.  (They kept touching her hair).

-Watching KC play with kids with much love (an exceptional young 15 old guy that chose to come to Africa for his 16^th birthday rather than getting a car).

-150 children happy to be fed and cared for at the Compassion project. 

By Julia – Today was not what I expected.   There were so many kids.  They were so sweet and loving.  They all wanted their picture taken.  The whole time we were at the project all anyone could hear was “photo, will you take my photo?”  At the end I had two girls just attached to my arms.  They were very sweet.  When I had to leave they tried to follow me on the bus.

The project was very overwhelming.  There were so many kids all wanting you to either take their photo or give them your camera. I don’t think you can really prepare for that sort of thing.  The chairman of the project was telling us that there is a drought going on and how the project isn’t getting water because the government had to take out the pipes to pave a road.  He was telling us about their fish pond and how it is struggling to have water in it due to the drought.  The fish pond provides food.  Also, none of the crops will grow because there is no water and many days children in the community go hungry.  I was telling you guys how sweet they are because it was shocking that they should be so kind, loving and happy in that situation.  I don’t know if I could be like that if I were in their situation.

So far the trip has been very impacting.  I am excited for tomorrow, we are visiting a child survival program, a place for 0-3 year olds and pregnant women.  I love and miss all you guys back home.  Thank you for your prayers.

By Grace – Today we went to our first project.  It was a lot of fun.  When we were going to the project everyone waved at us and stared because we were white.  We got out of the bus and people started to sing and dance.  Then we slowly walked into the church as people still were singing.  In the church we watched the kids say poems and sing songs.  After the kids were done, the women came and performed skits.  I did not understand the women because they were speaking in Swahili.  

When they were done we got to play with the kids.  They were all very nice and some were very shy.  The strangest thing was when they started to touch and play with my hair.  They did this because they are not used to blond and straight hair.  Before we left they gave us pop, so I had a little sip and gave the rest to the kids.  It was gone in less than a minute.  As we left and said goodbye we gave at least a thousand high-fives.  Two kids chased me onto the bus just to say goodbye.  When we were driving out the kids followed the bus, which was so cute!  I miss you all.  I love it when you leave me comments.

By Isabel – Today was a great experience.  We went to a project.  There was about 150 kids and they all wanted me to take a picture of them.  I ended up taking 250 pictures.  

It was sad because they don’t have water.  They used to have water until they re-did the roads and they took out all the water pipes.  They have not put the pipes back in.  So the people are praying for rain.